To contact the school about this tomorrow

[cornbeeflegs]

My eldest DD (13) goes swimming with one of her friends on a Wednesday evening, has done since last August, at the local leisure centre. She goes straight from school to her friend's house, has dinner, does homework, etc and then they go to the pool for 8pm, spend an hour in the open swim session, then she gets dropped back here by one of friend's parents.
She came back very subdued this evening, thought maybe she'd had a fallout with friend or something, eventually she opened up and said she'd got into trouble with one of her teachers. Asked her which lesson it was in and what had happened, then she said it was at swimming.
Apparently DD and friend had been waiting for their lift home after swim session when one of their teachers had seen them, recognised them as being from her school because they were in uniform, and then proceeded to tell them off for not wearing it as per school rules, even though they weren't at school they were still "representing the school" by wearing it. She's asked them both to see her first thing tomorrow morning.
Usually I'm supportive of school and if my children transgress the rules then they face the consequences. But surely this is too harsh?

@SartresSoul

I think the usual argument against own clothes is bullying, plain and simple. If everyone has to wear the exact same thing then there’s a lot less reason for people to get bullied. If people were to wear their own clothes it would open up children from impoverished backgrounds in particular to all manner of bullying. There’s no reason to create that sort of division as far as I can see.

Anyway, I think this teacher took things too far. I can understand when a child is misbehaving in their school uniform (I remember some boys from my school snowballing houses after school for example) but they were just standing there so yeah, maybe she was on a weird power trip?

The bullying argument is nonsense, plain and simple. If it held water, rates of bullying in schools would be lower in the UK than in countries where there is no school uniform, like Germany or the Netherlands. And they're not. You prevent bullying by focusing on behaviour and being tough on bullying where it happens, end of. My DDs were both bullied in their UK uniform wearing school - fortunately the school dealt with it brilliantly. I was also bullied in my Dutch non-uniform school, the school dealt with it brilliantly. Simple.

@SartresSoul

I think the usual argument against own clothes is bullying, plain and simple. If everyone has to wear the exact same thing then there’s a lot less reason for people to get bullied. If people were to wear their own clothes it would open up children from impoverished backgrounds in particular to all manner of bullying. There’s no reason to create that sort of division as far as I can see.

Anyway, I think this teacher took things too far. I can understand when a child is misbehaving in their school uniform (I remember some boys from my school snowballing houses after school for example) but they were just standing there so yeah, maybe she was on a weird power trip?

Just because it's the usual argument it doesn't mean it's a valid or good argument.

If a school has an issue with bullying, they have an issue with bullying. If it's not clothes it will be something else. Clothes don't suddenly make bullying suddenly appear. And even if they did strict uniform rules will make that worse too. Uniform that is too small, or tatty ,or inappropriate for the weather. School shoes too small, that hurt feet, or with holes in them or soles or other bits hanging off. That can all be avoided when rules are a bit more lax. A kid can wear their trainers or whatever footwear they have (for example) until school shoes can be replaced.

If it was such a big issue , there would no non uniform days or themed days.

If it was such a big issue, you wouldn't have schools where the uniform costs hundreds of pounds just for one set of each.

The division is there regardless, it's simplistic and quite daft to think uniform makes anything better.

I don't care about uniform, as long as it's affordable, comfortable and the rules are reasonable.

The problem is the rules aren't reasonable. I went to a strict state school when it came to uniform- top buttons done at all times etc. But in the last 10 years or so, uniform rules have become outrageous and completely inflexible.

There are rules in place now which dictate how short boys can have their hair! I understand rules against tramlines and nom-natural colours, but when did a simple short back and sides become in any way problematic? At one point that was the only style allowed!

I went to school with a lad who used to shave his head because he had MPB even as a teenager. Lord knows what he would have to do nowadays.

Shirt, tie, one colour jumper with iron-on logo, black shoes. This isn't a problem.

Shirt with school logo sold by one supplier costing £££, jumper with logo also costing £££, specific colour trousers that have to be a particular shade of grey, black shoes with a sole no higher than 3/4 of an inch and with laces of a certain length - no Velcro, no slip ons, no hint of colour on the underneath that no one can ever see, grey socks (no black), no belts, black coat with no logos, no hood and NOT a bomber jacket, denim jacket or puffer jacket, two types of trainer for PE, etc etc is not ok.

And as for demanding it's worn a certain way outside of school? Bat shit.

All we hear about is teachers having so much work to do, never any time off, how awful the job is. And yet here we have a teacher in the wild on a school night creating more work for themselves. These people wouldn't last a minute in any other profession.

Uniform is good for avoiding arguments with teenage daughters about what they are going to wear every day. But it's only a leveller if it's affordable, otherwise the poorest kids can't afford to keep up with buying new

@RocketFire7

Tbh I think you’re being unreasonable. I think it’s perfectly fair for the school to expect uniform to be worn correctly outside school.

It reflects badly on the school if you have students walking about in public looking scruffy. The DCs’ school expect uniform to be worn smartly on any occasion- top buttons done up and blazers on.

Detention is fairly given to miscreants.

'miscreants'